Fiber of All Sorts – Page 29 – Sew Bittersweet Designs

Pre-Gaming For Some Finishes!

13 Comments / A Lovely Year of Finishes, Fiber of All Sorts, Intrepid Thread, Lovely Finish / By Melissa Dunworth

Happy Boxing Day Everyone!

This past weekend I had the chance to take my mom and Anne to one of my favorite fabric stores…The Intrepid Thread! I brought 2 quilt tops with me and a small collection of blocks for a 3rd top and did a little pre-gaming for our Lovely Year of Finishes that I am co-hosting with Shanna from Fiber of All Sorts.

I purchased backing material for all 3 quilts and thought I would share them with you!

These are the blocks that the wonderful ladies from the Trust Circle of Do. Good Stitches made in November and I have the happy job of sewing them into a quilt. I bought some gorgeous Kharma Baby for the backing.

This is the Purple Bee Block quilt for my mom. I bought some Pearl Bracelets by Lizzy House for the backing, my mom is in love.

This is my grandma’s Chemo Quilt. She passed before it could be made. I have been making it in her honor. I bought some of my favorite Impressions by Ty Pennington.

Julie and Mallory were wonderful in helping me pick out fabrics, I couldn’t be more grateful for the help. If you are in the Bay Area, I highly recommend heading over to The Intrepid Thread, I guarantee you won’t walk away empty handed!

Have you started pre-gaming or planning for A Lovely Year of Finishes yet?

A Lovely Finish

9 Comments / A Lovely Year of Finishes, Christmas, Fiber of All Sorts, Lovely Finish / By Melissa Dunworth

This past year I have had a hard time actually finishing things. I have finished five good sized quilts and several wall hangings/charity quilts. I have about a million works in progress. Projects that I have started and for one reason or another stopped. When it comes to completed quilt tops my biggest, number one reason for not finishing is I can never decide how to quilt something.

In December alone though…I picked up the pace, I finished 2 quilts AND I made 5 blankets for my nieces and nephews, not bad since I am 800 miles from my sewing machine (thank goodness my mom was able to loan me hers!). Here is a link to the group quilt I helped make. Here is another link to the commission quilt I finished. The past 2 weeks I have been sewing like crazy to finish 5 minky cuddle blankets for my nieces and nephews and I am so excited to say I have actually finished them – BEFORE Christmas!

Finishing is an important part of quilting, sewing, crafting, etc., and I was recently talking to my friend Shanna from Fiber of All Sorts about how it feels like we are always talking about what we are working on but never about things we have actually finished. Well 2013 is the year that all changes! We have teamed up and decided to launch A Lovely Year of Finishes.

We have set a goal, 1 finish per month for the next year giving ourselves a grand total of TWELVE finishes! AND…we are inviting you to join us! We have lined up some awesome sponsors and will be running regular linky parties so you can show us what you are working on and a Flickr Group too! Oh wait! Did I mention there will be prizes too?

So go check out our page, grab a button and join the Flickr Group for A Year of Lovely Finishes. While you are at it, make sure you head of to Shanna’s blog to see her finishes from this month!

Since I will not be back before Christmas, I hope everyone has a lovely holiday, filled with family and happiness.

Connections

11 Comments / Fiber of All Sorts, quilt, Quilt Inspiration, Quilting Bees, SewHappyGeek / By Melissa Dunworth

I have been part of this wonderful online community for a little less than 2 years and actively on Twitter for about a year now. Through this community I have made so many wonderful friends and connections. These friends have brought such joy to my life, and this past week I was blessed enough to work with 2 friends to bring some joy to another friend’s life.

I met 3 wonderful ladies on Twitter, @h2ogirl76 (aka. fiberofallsorts) – real name Shanna, @sewhappygeek – real name Jenna, and @HQSuz – real name Susan. Earlier this year, Susan wrote a heartfelt blogpost about losing her father. It is never easy to lose someone you love and Shanna, Jenna and I teamed up in the hopes of doing something that would honor her father and show her how much she is loved and supported. Thus a quilt was born.

: Photo courtesy of The History Quilter (Susan)

The ever talented Jenna from Sew Happy Geek, took the Navy Star block and enlarged it giving Shanna and I this amazing pattern to work with. Shanna was the guiding force behind the colors and figuring out how to assemble the extra large blocks, and let me tell you that lady has an eye for color! My role was to stitch a couple of the blocks and quilt it. I also needed to figure out how to send it and keep it a surprise, and in walks another wonderfully talented lady, Jaye from Artquiltmaker. She was the essential link in getting this quilt mailed and keeping it a surprise. She is friends with Susan and was willing to package and ship our quilt for us, putting the wonderful final touch on this quilt of love.

Susan has since named this quilt “The Navy Quilt” and I have first hand knowledge that she has already spent some quality time snuggling underneath it. Being part of something like this just solidified the importance of this community and the connections we make in my mind. Sometimes it is about stepping outside yourself and doing something for someone else in need. Thank you Jenna, Shanna and Jaye for letting me be a part of this, and Susan, I truly hope you enjoy your quilt.

If you would like to read Susan’s blog post about the quilt, please go to History Quilter and read all about it. If you would like to read Shanna’s post, please go to Fiber of All Sorts and read all about it there.

I Stripped!

14 Comments / Fiber of All Sorts, Stripper Quilt / By Melissa Dunworth

I am so excited! I finished my first stripper row from my Strip Quilters Group!

Shanna from Fiber of All Sorts gave me such amazing inspiration (her row is the top row) and below her row is what I came up with, I hope it compliments it well.

I had so much fun working on this row for Shanna. There is a tutorial on my blog for the two side blocks – check it out here. Next week I will have a tutorial up for the center block and I will eventually have one for the curvy pinwheel block too.